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Budget woes plague BSISD

Staff Writer

Friday, June 9, 2017

BIG SPRING, TX

Big Spring ISD trustees are heading into another grueling round of budget cuts.
“It’s never really good news these days,” CFO of Big Spring ISD Susan Bryan said frankly before reporting on the current state of the upcoming budget to trustees during their meeting Thursday night.
Based on the district's non-certified property values of $1.59 billion released by the Howard County Appraisal District, Big Spring ISD is looking at a budget deficit of $2.4 million for the upcoming 2017-1018 year, Bryan reported.
However with a drop in student enrollment at the elementary level, she said the district was able to cut 18 teacher positions and three more at Big Spring Intermediate School through attrition.
“That's about $1 million off the budget,” Bryan said. “Now the budget deficit is about $1.4 million. This is bottom line. There are no raises in it (the budget). There are no capital expenditures like for school busses, and we haven’t done that in a long time. We are working hard on reducing it, and we are hoping the certified values will come in higher in July.”
Historically, the appraisal district reports a conservative number for non-certified property values, Bryan said, and that number is usually higher when official numbers are released.
Outside factors may also play into the upcoming budget. Public school financing and $1,000 raises for teachers are two of the 19 issues on the agenda for the upcoming Texas special legislation session called by Gov. Greg Abbott.